Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months. My visits to Frank's
house steadily increased (though my work into a full seer suffered due to
this), as did the size of his house, where he was getting the material from
still a mystery to me. By the time three months had passed, the 'escape
pod' was already beginning to rival the Great Hall in size, a mansion of
sorts. I was oblivious to the fact that although the escape pod was growing
larger in size, so were the jets on the back of take off. Of course, it
made little difference to me-Grundos knew little to nothing about space
travel, and as far as I knew, Frank just wanted more space to perform his
experiments, for that was what he seemed to be most interested in lately.
His personal room had been greatly downsized, artifacts of religious significance collecting dust in corners. I asked about this only once-he replied simply that he felt his God could not hear him from this world, and thus they had become completely obsolete-in fact, his whole priesthood was completely obsolete, and he had little reason to practice it anymore. He still wore the same clothes, however-though it seemed for different reasons then being modest in dress.
But despite the changes going on inside of the escape pod, and going on inside of Frank himself, my attraction did not waver. In fact, it became more persistent, nudging itself gently into casual conversation. I thought it should be very apparent to him what I was feeling-but if he knew, he did not express any knowledge. He treated me as a friend, if more respected then the still-appearing green Grundos that flocked around the escape pod. He let me participate in some of the experiments he performed, showing me the periodic table of elements that he had devised (which would later be converted for human elements). Although I was not turning out to be much of a seer because of Frank's arrival, I was certainly advancing far beyond other Grundo seers in other respects.
But my daily activities were suddenly given a jolt when horrible news came to our house during breakfast. My father was pointedly ignoring me, quite agitated that I was spending much more time with Frank then studying. (Dipak, on the other hand, had completely dumped me as a teacher, forcing me to get a replacement.) The message came in the form of Prakash, looking even whiter than he usually did. For the first time I heard the Grundo seer speak, his voice squeaky, high and nasally, certainly not how I had imagined his voice.
"Master Aditya, sir!" he cried, nearly busting down our door as he invited himself in. "Master Aditya, it's Elder Miltiades-he's fallen terribly ill!" It was a well-known fact that my father was the best healer in the village, and he stood up rapidly, nearly knocking over his morning juice. I stood up as well, concern filling my body. The news was unexpected- the last time I had seen Elder Miltiades, he had been in good health, despite his age.
"Citali, get my bags of medicine," said my father, speaking to me for the first time that morning. I obeyed, running to his room and swiping it off of his bed stand, running back to the breakfast table, handing him the bag. He opened it, skimming through the contents, and then closed it, nodding sharply. "I have all I need. Lead us there, Prakash," he said. My heart jumped as he said "we," clearly indicating that I was to be included. I blessed my dear father as we hurried off at a very surprising pace for Grundos. He lead us to the Great Hall, downstairs in the coolest room where Elder Miltiades lay, his form unconscious and burning hot.
"High fever and trouble breathing," my father mumbled to himself, digging through his bag. "I've seen this before, and I have treated it. Unfortunately, in Grundos of Elder Miltiades' age, there is a very slight chance that he will survive through the night," my father reported gravely, and brought out a small vile, splashing the contents onto his hand, pulling back the covers and then rubbing it on Elder Miltiades' chest. "Let's just hope that he will pull through."
"And your beloved Elder certainly won't if you use such primitive medicine," replied a voice sarcastically. Stepping down the stairs came Frank, holding a bag of his own. My father bristled with hostility.
"Nobody invited you."
"Nobody told me to stay away, either. And besides, when someone's near death, you generally call in a holy man to send them off into the heavens, don't you?" countered Frank, his calm demeanor a contrast to the tension in the room. "If you keep to this ancient medicine man routine, you're going to end up with a lot more dead patients then live ones. Here," he said, pulling out a brown-colored bottle, its contents darker inside. "Give him a spoonful of this every mealtime-he should be cured in approximately two days." He handed me the bottle, along with an odd utensil. "That would be a spoon," he commented dryly, seeing me fingering the utensil.
Slowly, I obliged to opening the bottle and pouring some into the rounded edge of that 'spoon.' I touched the spoon to Elder Miltiades' lips, the elderly Grundo quivering, his lips parting slowly. I tipped it into his mouth and stroked his throat to help it down his esophagus, a practice used for getting water into a dehydrated Grundo's mouth if they were too weak to intake it themselves.
Instantly, Elder Miltiades' condition seemed to improve, his shaking in the bed decreasing and his skin, to the touch, seemed to cool. My father shot a sharp look in Frank's direction, who seemed quite satisfied with the results. "Oh, and to cover up the separation between science and religion, take this too," he said, tossing something at my father. Instinctively, my father caught what had been thrown at him, and opened up his hands to look at what his hands now contained. It was a small golden chain, containing an lowercase letter t as a charm. "Hang it over his bed. And since I'm not exactly welcomed, as I can see-I'll be off."
With that, he walked out of the room, disappearing behind the closed door. My father immediately grabbed the bottle, appearing as if he were about to smash it against the ground. I caught his wrist just in time. "Father! What are you doing?!" I hissed, my eyes wide.
"I don't trust that man-although he comes off as a regular person, there's something different about him. Elder Miltiades sensed it as well- and I really don't want you going to talk to him anymore. Many seers are worried as well-and plus, your studies are suffering," replied my father in a quiet, logical voice. "Now, let's return to the normal remedies, and rid ourselves of his foul potions." Again he raised his arm against mine, but I snatched the bottle from him.
"This medicine HELPED Elder Miltiades-which is more than you can say for your medicine," I answered coldly. My father gave me a look as if he had been slapped in the face, his eyes shocked. The expression quickly faded away, however, giving way to boiling-over impatient ebbing to rage.
"We have been practicing medicine this way for years-"
"And THAT'S why it doesn't work! If we're going to go with medical science, we have to advance at sometime. Evolution is essential to everything to make its way into new generations-it's how the world works! You don't keep using something if it doesn't work, do you?" I protested.
"Citali, I used to be very proud of you, before this stranger came to our world. You were shaping up to be a fine seer-perhaps the next elder. But then that stranger comes and wipes your mind of all of the principles we Grundos seers stand for-talk of chemicals, evolution, revolutions! You're forgetting your culture, your family-your own species!" retorted my father, his temper rising. I had never seen him so furious before-usually he was quite even tempered, taking large things to set him off.
"Exactly-I'm prepared for the future; you're not. You will die with the rest of our species when the time comes," I replied in a low, dark voice that did not sound anything like myself. For a moment, I frightened even myself, to say nothing of my father, who dropped the bottle. Luckily, my hands were still firmly on the bottle, so it did not go crashing to the floor. I tried to amend myself, stuttering. "Father, I didn't mean it like that-" I began, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. My father, however, did not seem interested in my apology, scrambling from the floor and moving away from me, Prakash looking quite baffled as well.
"There's no need to apologize, Citali," he cut in, his eyes half- closed. "Treat Elder Miltiades yourself if you like.with your revolutionary new methods. Then.then perhaps you'll see your error." He darted out of the room like a scared piece of game, escaping from the hunter. My eyes trailed to Prakash helplessly, who seemed equally as disturbed.
"Citali, what happened to you?" he whispered in his squeaky voice, and then turned his back to me, focusing on Elder Miltiades as if I weren't even there at all.
For the first moment in time, I felt very alone-as if I was on a stranded island with nobody around, not even a small little crab, or bugs that hovered around my head. I felt empty, a soulless husk with no real purpose, standing blankly, staring at the back of Prakash's head with vacant eyes. I wanted to run over and throw my arms around Prakash, just to feel the warmth of another body touching mine, comforting me even if he didn't want to. I could feel hot tears filling my eyes, overfilling and then rolling down my face. My grip weakened on the bottle and then fell to the ground with a smash, the glass breaking and emptying its contents onto the ground. The revolution became a puddle at my feet.
Prakash looked over to me in surprise, and saw the tears running down my face, my body stiff and tense. Slowly, he approached me, and then wrapped his arms comfortingly around me, soothing me, stroking one of my ear stalks. I wept into his shoulder, unable to control the frantic tears that seemed endless. I could hardly feel Prakash's touch-but it was nice nonetheless, easing the tension throughout my whole body, including my mind.
"L-let me sh-show you how to use the medicine bag," I said, stumbling over my words, the tears still coming, but enabling me to speak. We moved to the side of Elder Miltiades' bed where the bag still remained, my father, in his haste, having left if there. Picking it up, I rummaged through it, my father's words echoing in my mind as a young Grundo toddler, showing me all the medicines and their purposes. I pulled out a few assorted items, placing them on the bed stand next to Elder Miltiades. "These.this one's an ointment to rub on his chest.this he has to ingest at dawn and dusk.and that one's to lie on his forehead. Can you do that?"
"I think so," replied Prakash, nodding his head. I wiped the tears from my eyes, feeling silly, with the back of my hand.
"Good. I guess I'll leave it to you then," I said, swallowing back a lump in my throat. "I need to get home.my father."
"I understand," said Prakash, his voice, though annoying, soothing in a weird way, as he placed his hand gently on my shoulder. I still had no feeling beyond friendship for Prakash-yet he was a sweet Grundo for what he was worth. "You could also do with some rest, you know.you look tired."
"I'm fine," I lied, rubbing my temples. "Well, I should be off. Good- bye, Prakash," I said, waving as I walked out the door. I could feel his eyes watching me the whole way, and I felt guilty of letting him think that he had a chance when he clearly didn't. Yet maybe that was how Frank saw me- and that thought made my stomach drop into my intestines in regret.
I noticed vaguely that the golden chain Frank had given to my father now resided in my hands. Rubbing the charm on it, I looked at it only briefly
My father refused to speak to me when I got home, even after I explained what had happened. One of his ear stalks perked in interest, but beyond that, I got very little response. Feeling rejected and empty once again, I headed towards my bedroom, flopping into my bed and hoping that I would fall asleep instantly. In fact, I did-and completely slept through lessons and lunch. I suppose Prakash had been accurate in saying that I was tired-even I hadn't noticed how horribly exhausted I was, in both physical and mental respects. The sun was already begin to set in the distance, a large red ball sinking beneath the horizon.
Sighing, I shook my head and turned over in the bed. Although my stomach cried for food, my mind still wanted more rest-and my stomach could wait. However, my stomach won in its own lucky way-for I was aroused from a near-sleep when there was a slight tapping near my window. (Seeing as we didn't have glass, it couldn't have been ON the window-but it was definitely near it.) Opening my eyes a tad, I rolled over so as I could look out the window.
Standing outside of the window was someone very familiar, yet nobody that I had ever physically, truly seen before. I blinked, rubbing my eyes, trying to determine whether I was hallucinating or what I was seeing was real. No-it was reality. Frank himself had come to my window.
"Already sleeping? Isn't it a little early for that?" he asked, cocking his head quizzically.
"I'm tired," I replied grumpily. I wasn't in the mood for speaking with anyone, even Frank. I rolled back over in bed. "Come back tomorrow," I added as an afterthought, closing my eyes.
"Hey, hey, don't ignore me just yet," he pleaded, and I couldn't not give into such a pathetic sound that he made afterwards. I reluctantly turned back in the direction of my window, Frank poking his head in. "I have to show you something-something I've been working on for the past few months and is finally finished and perfected. I'm going to be displaying it for the whole village tomorrow-but for you I'll give a sneak peek, eh?" he said, his eyes sparkling. I wasn't exceptionally keen on the concept of getting out of my bed's relaxing comfort, but it was obvious Frank wasn't going to leave until I had gotten out of bed.
"Alright," I replied with a sigh, hugging my pillow one last time before wrenching myself away from the softness of the bed for the cold stone floor, stumbling about in the dying sunlight. Launching myself over the frame of the window, I threw my legs over and slipped out of my house, glad that it was a one-story house. (Most Grundo huts were-we weren't into too large, elaborate buildings.)
As soon as I was outside of the lure of my bedroom, my mind began to function properly once again, and my mind realized the still quite intense crush I had on Frank. It was only magnified as he walked next to me in the twilight. I turned my eyes away, making sure not to stare, although I found it difficult not to. Whenever I stole a look over, I found myself entranced for a few seconds, but then forced myself to look away.
All the while, Frank had been discussing what exactly he had built, but I had zoned out for the time being. Quickly, I tuned back in, but found myself utterly confused. ".needed radiation, and I couldn't find anything until lately.you know a lot of the rocks around this area." Finding that I had very little interest in what he was saying, partially due to the fact I was completely lost, having not heard everything from the beginning. Whenever he looked over to me for a response, I either nodded or shook my head-or even shrugged. What else could I do?
We arrived at his escape pod, enormous now, seemingly even bigger than I remembered seeing it only days earlier. Still, the hatch was rather difficult to get into, and Frank still had to assist me up. Wiggling through the hatch, I dropped down into the now-familiar chair. The control panel seemed to have expanded along with the escape pod, but I paid no mind to that small fact. Sliding out of the chair I followed after Frank, who had started moving without waiting for me. Feeling a bit rejected, I hastened my pace, being lead very obviously back to Frank's laboratory, which seemed larger than last time as well.
And in the middle was the pet project he had been working on for a while which I had only caught brief , disinterested glimpses of. It was the machine that would spell our doom in dark, sinister calligraphy, a mark for all to wear like the condemned. Yet at the time I could only be fascinated at its complexity-the many gears that operated it, the nooks and crannies yet to be explored and familiarized with. For me, it was like seeing a large, super toy, the one in the toy store that you know is too horribly expensive for you to ever afford, yet you yearn for it nonetheless. My love for technology blossomed into full flower at that point.and later it would wilt, as all beautiful things do.
"Amazing." I said, gaping. And then, the inevitable question: "What is it?"
"Heh, well, I explained it before, but I've never been known to turn down explaining one of my babies," he said, patting the side of the machine as if it were a beloved pet. "She's absolutely incredible, if I do say so myself-possessing the power to revolutionize the future of an entire species! She is a step ahead of evolution." (Technically, Frank was contradicting himself this whole time, believing in evolution and creationism simultaneously, supposedly, but I did not understand either concept very thoroughly.) "And she will be the one to.aid your species." A twisted smile crept across his face, marring the handsome face into something much darker. "Tomorrow will be her testing date-a late birthday present, so to speak."
"Aid our species? We're not in any trouble," I said, confused. "The last plagues we had was ages ago-and even that only made us stronger."
"There is no plague coming for your species, Citali-at least not directly. The pale horseman has long since passed your culture by, but comes galloping back with a vengeance-but you have yet to meet the true face of your white horseman." His words sounded almost prophetic, and in an eerie instant I understood them-but the understanding slipped through my fingers like sand. "Do you know why your planet is getting increasingly colder each year, Citali?" he asked, his hand suddenly grasping my arm. His hands were extraordinarily cold, as if they were made from stone rather than flesh. I moved back slightly, my heart pounding in my chest. His eyes bore into mine, desperate, perhaps verging on insane. "Well? Do you?"
"N-no.though we have noticed a temperature decrease."
"No wonder. Your planet is freezing, Citali-but you do not notice this because you are used to the temperature, and I myself have adjusted. There is no ice because your plants are used to the temperature-and as for the water, its configuration is different than any other water I have ever seen. Your sun in the sky? It has run out of fuel, so to speak. I noticed this coming into your solar system, just before the oxygen began to run out. It is an enormous red giant-and it will not exist in this state for long. Do you want to know what will happen to your sun-to this solar system?" His voice was icily logical, and it made adrenaline flow through my veins in panic. I had neither the strength to nod or shake my head-it didn't matter, he answered his own question.
"You need to know, Citali. You're the only one of the seers who is prepared for the new millennium-who is prepared for what will come! Your star will collapse, be it today, tomorrow or in a hundred years-but rest assured, it will collapse while your population is still around. But maybe this doesn't sound too bad to you-but it should. Oh, it should," he said, a slightly insane chuckle quavering his voice. "Your sun will supernova- explode with the force of millions, perhaps billions of dynamite. Your species, your planet, your solar system, perhaps even this part of your galaxy will be blasted into billions of pieces of space junk. Your sun is a ticking time bomb of an apocalypse-and the only way for your species to escape alive is to submit."
"Submit.to what?"
"You'll see, tomorrow," replied Frank in a low voice, his eyes dancing with excitement, "tomorrow, when the revolution begins!" The darkness seemed to engulf him now, swallowing the essence of the person I remembered-the light-hearted faerie who worked innocently with chemicals, prayed to his God, played the instrument called the cello. I pulled away from his grasp, backing up, fear tingling every sense in my body.
"B-but.Elder Miltiades."
"That old bag has no chance to survive. He has caught an interesting strain of pneumonia-neither viral nor bacteria, if that's even possible. Your planet certainly is strange, and I would desire more time on it if possible for research, but that is not possible. I cannot trust a planet that revolves around an explosive. The medicine I gave him is a type of cyanide-it will kill him peacefully, which is more than I can say about the pneumonia. Besides, without your leader, your species will be far easier to revolutionize."
My mind twirled around inside of my head, unable to absorb all of this information at once. I reeled on my feet, almost losing my balance, cursing having to be a bipedal creature. I grasped the table nearest to me, trying to support myself. Frank reached out for me but I drew away like an injured animal. Although I did not completely comprehend all that had been spoken to me, I was sure of one thing-I felt completely and utterly betrayed. The fact that I had so deeply trusted Frank, even stood up for him against my father and had found myself falling for him only made the stab in the back all the more painful. Physical pain would've been less agonizing.
"No.don't touch me," I muttered, my eyes unable to focus on anything at one time. "Don't.don't even lay your filthy hands on me!" I began in a soft voice, but my tone quickly escalated to a shrill shriek. "Liar!"
"I'm no liar-did I ever tell you something that wasn't the truth?"
"Y-you said that medicine would help Elder Miltiades! But.but you killed him! You really are a murderer!"
"There's a difference between murder and putting someone to rest. The Grundo would've suffered a long and painful death, and I gave him a quick and painless one. Is it so wrong to be merciful?"
"Don't pretend to be a saint, you scum!"
"Fine, I won't. I'll tell you exactly what I plan to do, and what brought me to this. We're not all that different, Citali-in fact, we're really the same. Part of a species, yet utterly different in mentality, we are set apart. While you may have had a choice to live a pointless existence among Grundos who could never fully understand you, a never- ending purgatory at best. Yet me? No roads are opened to me-none! But one.one solitary option. If you cannot be loved, you will make them love you through fear. Fear is a power over everyone-all feel it.
"Grundos which are not seers are about as bright as a rock. Not a very shiny rock at that, either, although the outward shell does not matter so much as far as intelligence spans. Those who cannot think for themselves must have others think for them-and for the past thousands of years, seers have been that mind. But another intelligent being could harness them- namely, me. They could be my minions, so to speak, those underneath me, who serve me. Slaves, perhaps, if you must put it in such harsh words, though I offer what slave owners do not: redemption, rescue from an imminent doom.
"Yet Grundos would not make very effective shock troops, now would you? You're relatively weak-your limbs could not go under much stress. Yet this is where this beauty comes in. There is a way to surpass evolution, defy God, replace him and twist his pathetic creations to your demands; this is the contraption that will do such a thing." He crossed behind the machine and to a dark corner of the laboratory. "And allow me to introduce, Citali, the future of your species!"
His personal room had been greatly downsized, artifacts of religious significance collecting dust in corners. I asked about this only once-he replied simply that he felt his God could not hear him from this world, and thus they had become completely obsolete-in fact, his whole priesthood was completely obsolete, and he had little reason to practice it anymore. He still wore the same clothes, however-though it seemed for different reasons then being modest in dress.
But despite the changes going on inside of the escape pod, and going on inside of Frank himself, my attraction did not waver. In fact, it became more persistent, nudging itself gently into casual conversation. I thought it should be very apparent to him what I was feeling-but if he knew, he did not express any knowledge. He treated me as a friend, if more respected then the still-appearing green Grundos that flocked around the escape pod. He let me participate in some of the experiments he performed, showing me the periodic table of elements that he had devised (which would later be converted for human elements). Although I was not turning out to be much of a seer because of Frank's arrival, I was certainly advancing far beyond other Grundo seers in other respects.
But my daily activities were suddenly given a jolt when horrible news came to our house during breakfast. My father was pointedly ignoring me, quite agitated that I was spending much more time with Frank then studying. (Dipak, on the other hand, had completely dumped me as a teacher, forcing me to get a replacement.) The message came in the form of Prakash, looking even whiter than he usually did. For the first time I heard the Grundo seer speak, his voice squeaky, high and nasally, certainly not how I had imagined his voice.
"Master Aditya, sir!" he cried, nearly busting down our door as he invited himself in. "Master Aditya, it's Elder Miltiades-he's fallen terribly ill!" It was a well-known fact that my father was the best healer in the village, and he stood up rapidly, nearly knocking over his morning juice. I stood up as well, concern filling my body. The news was unexpected- the last time I had seen Elder Miltiades, he had been in good health, despite his age.
"Citali, get my bags of medicine," said my father, speaking to me for the first time that morning. I obeyed, running to his room and swiping it off of his bed stand, running back to the breakfast table, handing him the bag. He opened it, skimming through the contents, and then closed it, nodding sharply. "I have all I need. Lead us there, Prakash," he said. My heart jumped as he said "we," clearly indicating that I was to be included. I blessed my dear father as we hurried off at a very surprising pace for Grundos. He lead us to the Great Hall, downstairs in the coolest room where Elder Miltiades lay, his form unconscious and burning hot.
"High fever and trouble breathing," my father mumbled to himself, digging through his bag. "I've seen this before, and I have treated it. Unfortunately, in Grundos of Elder Miltiades' age, there is a very slight chance that he will survive through the night," my father reported gravely, and brought out a small vile, splashing the contents onto his hand, pulling back the covers and then rubbing it on Elder Miltiades' chest. "Let's just hope that he will pull through."
"And your beloved Elder certainly won't if you use such primitive medicine," replied a voice sarcastically. Stepping down the stairs came Frank, holding a bag of his own. My father bristled with hostility.
"Nobody invited you."
"Nobody told me to stay away, either. And besides, when someone's near death, you generally call in a holy man to send them off into the heavens, don't you?" countered Frank, his calm demeanor a contrast to the tension in the room. "If you keep to this ancient medicine man routine, you're going to end up with a lot more dead patients then live ones. Here," he said, pulling out a brown-colored bottle, its contents darker inside. "Give him a spoonful of this every mealtime-he should be cured in approximately two days." He handed me the bottle, along with an odd utensil. "That would be a spoon," he commented dryly, seeing me fingering the utensil.
Slowly, I obliged to opening the bottle and pouring some into the rounded edge of that 'spoon.' I touched the spoon to Elder Miltiades' lips, the elderly Grundo quivering, his lips parting slowly. I tipped it into his mouth and stroked his throat to help it down his esophagus, a practice used for getting water into a dehydrated Grundo's mouth if they were too weak to intake it themselves.
Instantly, Elder Miltiades' condition seemed to improve, his shaking in the bed decreasing and his skin, to the touch, seemed to cool. My father shot a sharp look in Frank's direction, who seemed quite satisfied with the results. "Oh, and to cover up the separation between science and religion, take this too," he said, tossing something at my father. Instinctively, my father caught what had been thrown at him, and opened up his hands to look at what his hands now contained. It was a small golden chain, containing an lowercase letter t as a charm. "Hang it over his bed. And since I'm not exactly welcomed, as I can see-I'll be off."
With that, he walked out of the room, disappearing behind the closed door. My father immediately grabbed the bottle, appearing as if he were about to smash it against the ground. I caught his wrist just in time. "Father! What are you doing?!" I hissed, my eyes wide.
"I don't trust that man-although he comes off as a regular person, there's something different about him. Elder Miltiades sensed it as well- and I really don't want you going to talk to him anymore. Many seers are worried as well-and plus, your studies are suffering," replied my father in a quiet, logical voice. "Now, let's return to the normal remedies, and rid ourselves of his foul potions." Again he raised his arm against mine, but I snatched the bottle from him.
"This medicine HELPED Elder Miltiades-which is more than you can say for your medicine," I answered coldly. My father gave me a look as if he had been slapped in the face, his eyes shocked. The expression quickly faded away, however, giving way to boiling-over impatient ebbing to rage.
"We have been practicing medicine this way for years-"
"And THAT'S why it doesn't work! If we're going to go with medical science, we have to advance at sometime. Evolution is essential to everything to make its way into new generations-it's how the world works! You don't keep using something if it doesn't work, do you?" I protested.
"Citali, I used to be very proud of you, before this stranger came to our world. You were shaping up to be a fine seer-perhaps the next elder. But then that stranger comes and wipes your mind of all of the principles we Grundos seers stand for-talk of chemicals, evolution, revolutions! You're forgetting your culture, your family-your own species!" retorted my father, his temper rising. I had never seen him so furious before-usually he was quite even tempered, taking large things to set him off.
"Exactly-I'm prepared for the future; you're not. You will die with the rest of our species when the time comes," I replied in a low, dark voice that did not sound anything like myself. For a moment, I frightened even myself, to say nothing of my father, who dropped the bottle. Luckily, my hands were still firmly on the bottle, so it did not go crashing to the floor. I tried to amend myself, stuttering. "Father, I didn't mean it like that-" I began, my heart beating rapidly in my chest. My father, however, did not seem interested in my apology, scrambling from the floor and moving away from me, Prakash looking quite baffled as well.
"There's no need to apologize, Citali," he cut in, his eyes half- closed. "Treat Elder Miltiades yourself if you like.with your revolutionary new methods. Then.then perhaps you'll see your error." He darted out of the room like a scared piece of game, escaping from the hunter. My eyes trailed to Prakash helplessly, who seemed equally as disturbed.
"Citali, what happened to you?" he whispered in his squeaky voice, and then turned his back to me, focusing on Elder Miltiades as if I weren't even there at all.
For the first moment in time, I felt very alone-as if I was on a stranded island with nobody around, not even a small little crab, or bugs that hovered around my head. I felt empty, a soulless husk with no real purpose, standing blankly, staring at the back of Prakash's head with vacant eyes. I wanted to run over and throw my arms around Prakash, just to feel the warmth of another body touching mine, comforting me even if he didn't want to. I could feel hot tears filling my eyes, overfilling and then rolling down my face. My grip weakened on the bottle and then fell to the ground with a smash, the glass breaking and emptying its contents onto the ground. The revolution became a puddle at my feet.
Prakash looked over to me in surprise, and saw the tears running down my face, my body stiff and tense. Slowly, he approached me, and then wrapped his arms comfortingly around me, soothing me, stroking one of my ear stalks. I wept into his shoulder, unable to control the frantic tears that seemed endless. I could hardly feel Prakash's touch-but it was nice nonetheless, easing the tension throughout my whole body, including my mind.
"L-let me sh-show you how to use the medicine bag," I said, stumbling over my words, the tears still coming, but enabling me to speak. We moved to the side of Elder Miltiades' bed where the bag still remained, my father, in his haste, having left if there. Picking it up, I rummaged through it, my father's words echoing in my mind as a young Grundo toddler, showing me all the medicines and their purposes. I pulled out a few assorted items, placing them on the bed stand next to Elder Miltiades. "These.this one's an ointment to rub on his chest.this he has to ingest at dawn and dusk.and that one's to lie on his forehead. Can you do that?"
"I think so," replied Prakash, nodding his head. I wiped the tears from my eyes, feeling silly, with the back of my hand.
"Good. I guess I'll leave it to you then," I said, swallowing back a lump in my throat. "I need to get home.my father."
"I understand," said Prakash, his voice, though annoying, soothing in a weird way, as he placed his hand gently on my shoulder. I still had no feeling beyond friendship for Prakash-yet he was a sweet Grundo for what he was worth. "You could also do with some rest, you know.you look tired."
"I'm fine," I lied, rubbing my temples. "Well, I should be off. Good- bye, Prakash," I said, waving as I walked out the door. I could feel his eyes watching me the whole way, and I felt guilty of letting him think that he had a chance when he clearly didn't. Yet maybe that was how Frank saw me- and that thought made my stomach drop into my intestines in regret.
I noticed vaguely that the golden chain Frank had given to my father now resided in my hands. Rubbing the charm on it, I looked at it only briefly
My father refused to speak to me when I got home, even after I explained what had happened. One of his ear stalks perked in interest, but beyond that, I got very little response. Feeling rejected and empty once again, I headed towards my bedroom, flopping into my bed and hoping that I would fall asleep instantly. In fact, I did-and completely slept through lessons and lunch. I suppose Prakash had been accurate in saying that I was tired-even I hadn't noticed how horribly exhausted I was, in both physical and mental respects. The sun was already begin to set in the distance, a large red ball sinking beneath the horizon.
Sighing, I shook my head and turned over in the bed. Although my stomach cried for food, my mind still wanted more rest-and my stomach could wait. However, my stomach won in its own lucky way-for I was aroused from a near-sleep when there was a slight tapping near my window. (Seeing as we didn't have glass, it couldn't have been ON the window-but it was definitely near it.) Opening my eyes a tad, I rolled over so as I could look out the window.
Standing outside of the window was someone very familiar, yet nobody that I had ever physically, truly seen before. I blinked, rubbing my eyes, trying to determine whether I was hallucinating or what I was seeing was real. No-it was reality. Frank himself had come to my window.
"Already sleeping? Isn't it a little early for that?" he asked, cocking his head quizzically.
"I'm tired," I replied grumpily. I wasn't in the mood for speaking with anyone, even Frank. I rolled back over in bed. "Come back tomorrow," I added as an afterthought, closing my eyes.
"Hey, hey, don't ignore me just yet," he pleaded, and I couldn't not give into such a pathetic sound that he made afterwards. I reluctantly turned back in the direction of my window, Frank poking his head in. "I have to show you something-something I've been working on for the past few months and is finally finished and perfected. I'm going to be displaying it for the whole village tomorrow-but for you I'll give a sneak peek, eh?" he said, his eyes sparkling. I wasn't exceptionally keen on the concept of getting out of my bed's relaxing comfort, but it was obvious Frank wasn't going to leave until I had gotten out of bed.
"Alright," I replied with a sigh, hugging my pillow one last time before wrenching myself away from the softness of the bed for the cold stone floor, stumbling about in the dying sunlight. Launching myself over the frame of the window, I threw my legs over and slipped out of my house, glad that it was a one-story house. (Most Grundo huts were-we weren't into too large, elaborate buildings.)
As soon as I was outside of the lure of my bedroom, my mind began to function properly once again, and my mind realized the still quite intense crush I had on Frank. It was only magnified as he walked next to me in the twilight. I turned my eyes away, making sure not to stare, although I found it difficult not to. Whenever I stole a look over, I found myself entranced for a few seconds, but then forced myself to look away.
All the while, Frank had been discussing what exactly he had built, but I had zoned out for the time being. Quickly, I tuned back in, but found myself utterly confused. ".needed radiation, and I couldn't find anything until lately.you know a lot of the rocks around this area." Finding that I had very little interest in what he was saying, partially due to the fact I was completely lost, having not heard everything from the beginning. Whenever he looked over to me for a response, I either nodded or shook my head-or even shrugged. What else could I do?
We arrived at his escape pod, enormous now, seemingly even bigger than I remembered seeing it only days earlier. Still, the hatch was rather difficult to get into, and Frank still had to assist me up. Wiggling through the hatch, I dropped down into the now-familiar chair. The control panel seemed to have expanded along with the escape pod, but I paid no mind to that small fact. Sliding out of the chair I followed after Frank, who had started moving without waiting for me. Feeling a bit rejected, I hastened my pace, being lead very obviously back to Frank's laboratory, which seemed larger than last time as well.
And in the middle was the pet project he had been working on for a while which I had only caught brief , disinterested glimpses of. It was the machine that would spell our doom in dark, sinister calligraphy, a mark for all to wear like the condemned. Yet at the time I could only be fascinated at its complexity-the many gears that operated it, the nooks and crannies yet to be explored and familiarized with. For me, it was like seeing a large, super toy, the one in the toy store that you know is too horribly expensive for you to ever afford, yet you yearn for it nonetheless. My love for technology blossomed into full flower at that point.and later it would wilt, as all beautiful things do.
"Amazing." I said, gaping. And then, the inevitable question: "What is it?"
"Heh, well, I explained it before, but I've never been known to turn down explaining one of my babies," he said, patting the side of the machine as if it were a beloved pet. "She's absolutely incredible, if I do say so myself-possessing the power to revolutionize the future of an entire species! She is a step ahead of evolution." (Technically, Frank was contradicting himself this whole time, believing in evolution and creationism simultaneously, supposedly, but I did not understand either concept very thoroughly.) "And she will be the one to.aid your species." A twisted smile crept across his face, marring the handsome face into something much darker. "Tomorrow will be her testing date-a late birthday present, so to speak."
"Aid our species? We're not in any trouble," I said, confused. "The last plagues we had was ages ago-and even that only made us stronger."
"There is no plague coming for your species, Citali-at least not directly. The pale horseman has long since passed your culture by, but comes galloping back with a vengeance-but you have yet to meet the true face of your white horseman." His words sounded almost prophetic, and in an eerie instant I understood them-but the understanding slipped through my fingers like sand. "Do you know why your planet is getting increasingly colder each year, Citali?" he asked, his hand suddenly grasping my arm. His hands were extraordinarily cold, as if they were made from stone rather than flesh. I moved back slightly, my heart pounding in my chest. His eyes bore into mine, desperate, perhaps verging on insane. "Well? Do you?"
"N-no.though we have noticed a temperature decrease."
"No wonder. Your planet is freezing, Citali-but you do not notice this because you are used to the temperature, and I myself have adjusted. There is no ice because your plants are used to the temperature-and as for the water, its configuration is different than any other water I have ever seen. Your sun in the sky? It has run out of fuel, so to speak. I noticed this coming into your solar system, just before the oxygen began to run out. It is an enormous red giant-and it will not exist in this state for long. Do you want to know what will happen to your sun-to this solar system?" His voice was icily logical, and it made adrenaline flow through my veins in panic. I had neither the strength to nod or shake my head-it didn't matter, he answered his own question.
"You need to know, Citali. You're the only one of the seers who is prepared for the new millennium-who is prepared for what will come! Your star will collapse, be it today, tomorrow or in a hundred years-but rest assured, it will collapse while your population is still around. But maybe this doesn't sound too bad to you-but it should. Oh, it should," he said, a slightly insane chuckle quavering his voice. "Your sun will supernova- explode with the force of millions, perhaps billions of dynamite. Your species, your planet, your solar system, perhaps even this part of your galaxy will be blasted into billions of pieces of space junk. Your sun is a ticking time bomb of an apocalypse-and the only way for your species to escape alive is to submit."
"Submit.to what?"
"You'll see, tomorrow," replied Frank in a low voice, his eyes dancing with excitement, "tomorrow, when the revolution begins!" The darkness seemed to engulf him now, swallowing the essence of the person I remembered-the light-hearted faerie who worked innocently with chemicals, prayed to his God, played the instrument called the cello. I pulled away from his grasp, backing up, fear tingling every sense in my body.
"B-but.Elder Miltiades."
"That old bag has no chance to survive. He has caught an interesting strain of pneumonia-neither viral nor bacteria, if that's even possible. Your planet certainly is strange, and I would desire more time on it if possible for research, but that is not possible. I cannot trust a planet that revolves around an explosive. The medicine I gave him is a type of cyanide-it will kill him peacefully, which is more than I can say about the pneumonia. Besides, without your leader, your species will be far easier to revolutionize."
My mind twirled around inside of my head, unable to absorb all of this information at once. I reeled on my feet, almost losing my balance, cursing having to be a bipedal creature. I grasped the table nearest to me, trying to support myself. Frank reached out for me but I drew away like an injured animal. Although I did not completely comprehend all that had been spoken to me, I was sure of one thing-I felt completely and utterly betrayed. The fact that I had so deeply trusted Frank, even stood up for him against my father and had found myself falling for him only made the stab in the back all the more painful. Physical pain would've been less agonizing.
"No.don't touch me," I muttered, my eyes unable to focus on anything at one time. "Don't.don't even lay your filthy hands on me!" I began in a soft voice, but my tone quickly escalated to a shrill shriek. "Liar!"
"I'm no liar-did I ever tell you something that wasn't the truth?"
"Y-you said that medicine would help Elder Miltiades! But.but you killed him! You really are a murderer!"
"There's a difference between murder and putting someone to rest. The Grundo would've suffered a long and painful death, and I gave him a quick and painless one. Is it so wrong to be merciful?"
"Don't pretend to be a saint, you scum!"
"Fine, I won't. I'll tell you exactly what I plan to do, and what brought me to this. We're not all that different, Citali-in fact, we're really the same. Part of a species, yet utterly different in mentality, we are set apart. While you may have had a choice to live a pointless existence among Grundos who could never fully understand you, a never- ending purgatory at best. Yet me? No roads are opened to me-none! But one.one solitary option. If you cannot be loved, you will make them love you through fear. Fear is a power over everyone-all feel it.
"Grundos which are not seers are about as bright as a rock. Not a very shiny rock at that, either, although the outward shell does not matter so much as far as intelligence spans. Those who cannot think for themselves must have others think for them-and for the past thousands of years, seers have been that mind. But another intelligent being could harness them- namely, me. They could be my minions, so to speak, those underneath me, who serve me. Slaves, perhaps, if you must put it in such harsh words, though I offer what slave owners do not: redemption, rescue from an imminent doom.
"Yet Grundos would not make very effective shock troops, now would you? You're relatively weak-your limbs could not go under much stress. Yet this is where this beauty comes in. There is a way to surpass evolution, defy God, replace him and twist his pathetic creations to your demands; this is the contraption that will do such a thing." He crossed behind the machine and to a dark corner of the laboratory. "And allow me to introduce, Citali, the future of your species!"